CCPR/C/123/D/2768/2016 M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece that the mere existence of “domestic laws and accession to international treaties guaranteeing respect for fundamental rights in principle are not in themselves sufficient to ensure adequate protection against the risk of ill-treatment”.23 The Hungarian authorities completely disregarded the fact that the author was a victim of trafficking who had suffered serious abuse in Serbia, that she had been held in captivity, forced into prostitution and raped several times until she was abandoned by her captors in the forest at the Hungarian border and that, therefore, she had had no chance to ask for asylum in Serbia even if she had wanted to. The Hungarian authorities clearly did not conduct a thorough and individualized assessment, taking into consideration the personal circumstances of the author and the general situation prevailing in the country of return in the light of the jurisprudence of the European Court. 24 3.9 The author is particularly vulnerable to inhuman and degrading treatment in Serbia as she is a single woman, a victim of trafficking and has suffered related mental and psychological health problems. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. 25 She was raped several times and deprived of her liberty while in Serbia, facts that amount to a violation of article 7 of the Covenant according to the Committee’s general comment No. 20. None of those factors were taken into consideration during the asylum procedure carried out by the Office of Immigration and Nationality or by the Budapest Administrative and Labour Court. 3.10 Different reports also show that victims of human trafficking are not sufficiently protected in Serbia. 26 Those who have been rescued can be subject to a lengthy and insensitive procedure that may result in secondary traumatization. Victims’ identities are often not effectively protected by the authorities, which may put them in danger. The efforts of the authorities to identify victims of trafficking among asylum seekers are not considered adequate27 and victims of rape are in a very difficult situation in Serbia owing to fear of reprisals from attackers and of humiliation in court. There is low public awareness of sexual harassment, the Government has not enforced the law effectively and the number of complaints filed by women remains low. 28 3.11 With regard to article 13 of the Covenant, the author was denied the opportunity to submit reasons against her expulsion and to be represented before the Budapest Administrative and Labour Court. Following her interview with the Office of Immigration and Nationality, the minutes were not read back to her in order to give her the possibility to correct any errors, nor did the Office of Immigration and Nationality take into account the report by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in making their decision, including the fact that the author and her sister had been victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse in Serbia. Although the author lodged an appeal within the legal seven-day period, the court decided her case without considering her submission owing to the delay of one week in the 23 24 25 26 27 28 6 See M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, para. 353. The author also refers to the judgments of the European Court in Neulinger and Shruk v. Switzerland, Case No. 41615/07, 6 July 2010; Sharifi and others v. Italy and Greece, Case No. 16643/09, 21 October 2014; and Tarakhel v. Switzerland, Case No. 29217/12, 4 November 2014. The author is supported by the Cordelia Foundation, a Hungarian non-governmental organization working for the rehabilitation of victims of torture. The Cordelia Foundation issued a medical opinion on 28 April 2016, following her allegations of torture — sexual abuse and rape — in which it stated that the author was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. She still needed medication and psychotherapy and the Foundation further stated that: “the symptoms of the applicant and the result of the medical evaluation are in line with each other. The claimed forms of torture and traumas are normally those which may be experienced in the case of those arriving from the region of the applicant. I hereby state that, based on her symptoms, the applicant was a victim of seriously inhuman treatment, traumatisation and still continues to suffer from these experiences.” See Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, “Report concerning the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by Serbia”, (January 2014), para. 235. See United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report. July 2015, available from www.state.gov/documents/organization/245365.pdf. See United States Department of State, “Country reports on human rights practices for 2015”, available from https://2009-2017.state.gov/humanrightsreports/.